TLDR:
Blocc is a platform designed to be a homepage for all of your hard earned attention to. I don't think when someone comes on your link in bio they should leave without understanding you or going away. Blocc allows you to build communities, collect emails/fans, exclusive posts etc all from the once space. no need to bounce around different places.

Here's the long form of the intentions and reasoning as to why I build what I built:

As of late, I feel strongly about soulful things. Things with colour, personality, humanity. Things that are hard and DEMAND our attention. Not fed to us. The art.

I grew up on the internet, it raised me, as it did many of you. As an introverted and shy kid, most of what I consumed came from the internet growing up. It curated my taste in music, recording songs off a speaker on an MP3 player that I can listen to on my way to school. Giving the family computer virtual herpes trying to download a Greenday album off of Limewire. Taught me ethics and morals that my peers nor family did, arguing with strangers on the internet over philosophical problems or asking questions (yes most people just called you dumb without providing an answer but still).
I didn't start attending concerts or going to galleries or places of art until I was into my twenties. My taste had set by then. As did many of yours.

But I FEEL there used to be more colour, more spaces, not spaces that vie for your attention to sell you stuff. You think being a Youtuber or Tiktoker that you make a living off makes you your own boss? No. No it doesn't. It barely represents you as a person. You're a content machine, if you make stuff the algorithm likes it will reward you, and it can change at the whim of these soulless, mega corporations. Remember that these are public companies, they have to grow and they'll do whatever they can to capture your attention. They're made to curate content to attack your nervous system, leaving you craving validation and an unpredictable dopamine hit like a gambler who's lost his life savings in his vice but won 3 bucks for the first time since he started.

It degrades the artist that makes 1 song a season. If you don't post on month 2, you could be in algorithm jail never being pushed out again. Leaving you questioning if it's your music that's bad. It leaves you making generic EDM bangers about sex and drugs, even though you grew up loving and playing jazz. You try one jazz track and your "fanbase" and viewership tanks. Still think your channel or page is your own space?

And they're smart about it. We have open protocols to reach out the people that INTENTIONALLY ask to keep them updated (that's what the intention of a subscription or follow is); that's emails, that's phone numbers, that's addresses. But no, they'll gate keep it such that you THEY get to be the ones to put your content out. You think youtube is just gonna had you all of your user's emails? They'll cite some security and spamming bullshit. News flash people. Check your spam inbox. It's full. Facebook sold your emails decades ago to someone trying to scam you with "hot milfs in your area". If someone expresses they no longer want to be notified, they can just pass off that responsibility to you, that's your problem. We sign that when we intend to subscribe.

That's why I'm creating Blocc. I don't know exactly what all of it is going to, but I feel the intention is what matters most. I intend to create a space that's yours, that you can build on. That you can point to and share (with a pretty QR code or a link) and say "hey this is ME on the internet" and that's not a bunch of links in a list of varying colours going to an Onlyfans.

I've built spaces that you can customise, but not a website builder. I'm not trying to make a Wix clone, but something that helps you design within some bounds (call these artistic constraints), gather inspiration and be iterative. I want you to feel proud that YOU built it and not some AI that you prompted. So I made it easy enough. I'm not sure if I've found the balance yet, but I'll get there.

I'm an artist and a solo dev, not a mega corporation trying to mulch your art into content and profit off of you. I don't even know how I'll go about creating a discovery feature, but I know that it has to be human, it has to be curated, it has to support culture, it's supposed to be consumed slowly.

I made this as a space for MYSELF this is how I wanted it, and in the process of showing people around that this was my "space" and how I could edit it. They wanted one too.

And finally, I will charge fairly. I will charge you when you're getting value out of this. Features such as sending email from our platform, analytics engines, taking a cut of monetisation to pay for various fees on the platform (video hosting is expensive man).

I'm not gonna charge you to have more than 3 colours or some bullshit like that.

Also btw, this isn't a replacement for all of these spaces I've described. I love a good scroll once in a while, shutting my brain off, but it’s easy to overconsume and be ashamed of my overindulgence (when scroll becomes doomscroll). I've found amazing "content" on all of these platforms. However, I'm going to guarantee that most people know about "the history of everything I guess" without knowing who Bill Wurtz is (he made it btw). Youtube got me through engineering school man (thank you random Indian professor of thermodynamics and electrical engineering). However those aren't your spaces and to some degree that’s selfless and altruistic, however that’s not every (most) artist, I can't tell anything about your being on one. I don't even know if you're creating things you care about or just catering heavily to the algorithm. And that’s what Blocc is.

Errhemm, well that's it then. I wanted to express my intention. Nothing else. The features are a reflection of the intentions.

I'll see you on Blocc.

Love,
Reb

Blocc

Your home and platform in bio. Not just a link.

Your home and platform in bio. Not just a link.